Mara
by Aerides
Summary: He gave up his power over her and she left her dreams behind. But only a champion of the Labyrinth can marry its king and those who have visited inevitably find their way back...
1. Prologue

**_Mara_**

_Prologue_

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**A/N - So for some reason I've really got back into Labyrinth and have been having quite a few story/drawing ideas. So here goes, this is my first Labyrinth fic and hopefully it isn't too horribly awful. If you think it's worth continuing then feel free to drop me a review, it will earn my undying love and gratitude.**

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_It had been such a vivid dream, the kind that doesn't just burst with colours and sounds but inflames every sense and remains with you forever. Though for some reason after that night Sarah Williams could not remember having a dream so full of colour. When she really sat down to think about it she could not remember ever dreaming at all._

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Jareth the thirty third, king of the goblins and guardian of the Labyrinth, who would forever go down in history as Jareth the Vain son of Jareth the Mad had spent the night among the stairs and arches of the castle's inner sanctum. It was a place where the membrane between his world and the next was at its thinnest and where the mortal realm could be easily watched. He had not left his spot in thirteen days, lying on his back on the cold stones; legs dangling over the dangerously long fall into… no one really knew what. He would glare at the crystal in his hand so intensely that he could have shattered it, then leap up onto his feet and throw the thing as hard as he could in frustration when the cloudy image inside the perfect sphere refused to become any clearer.

No power over her, indeed. He wasn't expecting that phrase to be taken so literally. He couldn't even see her, let alone travel to the above world. He would really miss that freedom he had taken for granted, humans were always so entertaining the the world above was just vast in comparison to his own sleepy kingdom. And he would miss watching her. It was as though he had been permanently locked out of her life. The Labyrinth's latest champion, the human girl, Sarah Williams was now out of bounds, and there was nothing Jareth hated more than being excluded.

On the morning of his thirteenth day of sulking he was rudely awoken from his uncomfortable spot on the flagstones by a ball of thread rolling down the nearby steps and hitting him squarely in the temple. He held back a groan; he knew what that iridescent string meant that moved of its own accord, fine as spider's silk and stronger than a steel girder. He reached for the glittering thread and followed it back to its source out of that cold and logic defying room and into more inhabited wing of the castle. Luckily he didn't have to walk far this time as previous encounters with following enchanted threads had led him all over the Labyrinth. This time he was half led have dragged along to the entrance of the throne room (temporarily cleared of goblins) where he saw the magic coil's owner. The king sighed, he had been wondering when she would choose to grace the castle with her presence.

The woman in question, sat on his throne knowing he could do nothing to stop her. She reclined lazily as she wound the strange thread between her fingers, winding it back into a perfect ball. She was ageless, youthful in appearance yet impossibly old by human standards, with a delicate and ephemeral beauty that masked an iron will. Like the thread in her hands her hair was long growing past her ankles and half way across the throne room and was so white it shone in the dawn sunlight. She bore a striking resemblance to her king in the way that she carried herself, and shared the sinful pride that only a noble can possess.

"Darling." She greeted him with a wry smile.

"Mother." Jareth replied, acknowledging the woman who had gained a reputation across the kingdom as Ariadne the Shrewd. She had not ventured inside the castle since his coronation ceremony, preferring to summon him to her mansion on the outer edge of the Labyrinth's wall which she did very rarely. As such they hadn't spoken in nearly a hundred years. "Shouldn't you be at the south gate, minding your own business?"

"Oh good, you know what I'm about to say. That'll save us some time." The dowager queen grinned and kicked off her pearl encrusted slipped and crossed her legs under the endless ivory fabric of her gown. "Perhaps you could have heeded my advice in the first place and saved me a trip. I came because you have been neglecting your duties as king; someone had to fill in for you. Now a little bird...well quite a large bird that had been made into a hat, told me that the Labyrinth has chosen a victor for you, but you let her go. I knew you were afraid of commitment my son, but that really was foolish of you."

"She was only a child, mother. What was I supposed to do?" Jareth growled, he knew it had been foolish and he was paying the price.

"She would have grown up eventually. You know as well as I do that only a Champion can marry a Goblin Royal, a Champion that is chosen by the Labyrinth and who is deemed worthy of our line."

"Well I'm sorry, mother, but don't you think it's a little insane to let a giant maze choose your spouse? From what I've seen, it's never made anyone in this family very happy."

"It's in the rules, Jareth. There's nothing we can do to change that. And frankly, you need all the help you can get." The older fae said, perhaps with a hint of sadness at his words, although he could never really tell with her. "I wouldn't worry too much if I were you; those who have journeyed here often find their way back eventually. And besides, she left these behind and she'll be wanting them back."

She held out an object that bore a slight resemblance to one of his crystals. It was larger and instead of the pure clarity one would expect it was awash with every colour, swirling and dancing. "Oh look! They're mostly about you. How very sweet." The queen chuckled tossing the glittering orb in his direction as though she had grown bored with it and stood up to leave.

"And Jareth, do get back to work. This place really is a mess." And before he could argue she was gone in an opalescent cloud of glitter and the silent flutter of wings.

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**To be continued...**


	2. Stoner's Henge

**Chapter 1**

**Stoner's Henge**

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**Disclaimer - I don't own Labyrinth. Trust me it would have a very different ending if I did.**

**A/N - Oh my! A second installment? So soon with a university deadline so close? Thus proving that I am the procrastination champion. I'm also ill and in need of cheering up. Thank you to everyone who faved and reviewed, you guys are awesome...but you're also feeding the beginnings of a crippling addiction so please continue to review it does mean an awful lot to me.**

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"I had the strangest dream last night." Allison mentioned casually, taking a sip of coffee and turning her attention back to her sketchbook where a scratchy but infinitely detailed forest scene was beginning to emerge out of the creamy paper. Sarah had always been envious of her friend's artistic talent. "I was sewing something, I think, I can't remember what though. I was embroidering these butterflies and every time I finished one it would come to life and fly around me."

"Oh?" said Sarah, not really listening.

"And the weird thing was that when I woke up there was this giant moth climbing up the window."

"It was probably just a coincidence." her friend replied, wondering for a moment why she had thought about owls.

Sarah's parents had allowed Allison to stay over for the weekend while they were out of town visiting Karen's mother. Karen had agreed to it on the condition that the two girls would make the most of this time and finish their art assignment and that if they did throw any impromptu parties then they would have to make sure that the house was spotless by the time she got back. Karen had always been overly optimistic about Sarah's social life. They had met about a year ago when Allison had moved to the area from Chicago and the pair had quickly bonded over their love of books and the fact that neither of them had had a real friend before. Allison was the kind of girl who wore too much eye-liner and hid her face behind a curtain of messy black hair, the kind who wore baggy clothes and parkas.

They had stayed up late watching old Hammer movies and drinking white Russians, Sarah had raided the Kahlua from her parents' liquor cabinet knowing they never drank it and probably wouldn't miss it, while Allison had convinced her older brother to buy her the vodka. Sarah had never really drunk before aside from a taste of champagne at weddings or New Year's Eve. It had tasted strange and felt almost like..

"Do you ever have that feeling that you've had a dream but you can't remember anything about it?" Sarah asked. She had never told anyone about the last dream she'd had, it must have been a few months before they had met, but for some reason it had grown fresh in her mind as though it needed to be shared.

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"_Listen! Wake up, wake up!"_

"_What is it?"_

"_She's talking about the dreaming, she figured it out."_

"_What did she say?"_

"_Shhh!"_

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"Yeah, lots of times." Said Allison "I read somewhere that you're supposed to have three or four dreams a night but you usually only remember the one you have before you wake up."

"Well I don't remember any of my dreams. Maybe I just never have them. I'd never noticed it before but every night I'd go to sleep and there'd be nothing there." Sarah said darkly.

"What? Like never?"

"I had one once. I was really into that play I lent you last fall."

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"_That's us! She's talking about us!"_

"_Shut up!"_

"_Listen, she's going to say the words."_

"What the one with the maze and the Goblins? Yeah I can imagine that would trigger a few nightmares." Allison laughed. "Did they come and take you away?"

"_Aww, so close!"_

"_She's not going to say it, false alarm everbody!"_

"_Shut up!"_

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"No, they took Toby and I had to solve the Labyrinth in thirteen hours or they would turn him into a Goblin. And most of it was beautiful and I was in this ballroom inside a bubble and it all seemed so real." She stopped herself, feeling foolish for sharing something so personal. Her best friend gave her a strange look.

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"_I'm confused, when did that happen."_

"_If she thinks it was a dream, does that mean we're not real?"_

"_Shush! This is no time to get philly…philly?"_

"_Philosophical?"_

"_That's the one, now be quiet and listen."_

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"Sounds like one hell of a dream." She giggled "But seriously, that's the only one you remember in your whole life?"

"Yeah, pretty much. And the thing is that before the dream I used to be, I dunno, I used have this drive, this amazing kind of energy to just write and draw and dress up and make up stories, like all the time. And then it just, disappeared, like all the ideas just fell out of my head somewhere and I couldn't find them again. And now I'm failing art, I've already dropped drama even though I used to be the biggest theatre geek ever. And I never daydream anymore, I can't explain how, but it's like I'm incapable of losing focus. And I'm left wondering what the hell happened to me."

"Maybe it was a phase and you just grew up? When you grow up your dreams die." Allison offered "Or maybe all that TV rotted your brain."

"I just wish….I wish I knew what went wrong." Sarah mused out loud.

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"_Did she say it?"_

"_Oh, that's close enough! Let's go!"_

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The two girls finished their project in a comfortable silence, and then decided to spend the afternoon in the park since Merlin needed walking. They took the old shortcut and walked around the lake where Sarah had acted out her favourite stories when she was younger and past the obelisk where she had first seen the owl, something else that had disappeared after the dream. They sat by the rock garden, which had been christened Stoner's Henge by the kids in the area and was probably the closest thing the town had to a drug culture.

"Did you know there's a Nordic belief that Nightmares were caused by a type of goblin called a Mara sitting on your chest while you sleep." Allison said out of the blue.

"I didn't know that." Sarah replied.

"I think it was probably an explanation for sleep paralysis or something like that. But you've got to admit, having a really vivid dream about goblins then suddenly not being able to dream anymore, maybe those Vikings were on to something."

"Are you implying that my dreams were stolen by goblins?" Sarah said incredulously and as if out of nowhere a roll of thunder grumbled across the park.

"I think the weather agrees with me." Allison laughed and stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder. In the changeable October weather, the air suddenly chilled and the rain that been threatening to fall all day came in one gigantic sheet of water. "But I think that's my cue to head home. Take care, Sarah."

"See you tomorrow."

"Don't let the goblins get you!" the girl laughed and waved as she began to run through the trees towards her house almost disappearing behind the curtain of the rain.

Sarah was already soaked to the skin by the time she and Merlin got home, the strangest sensation of déjà vu struck her, hadn't she been in the same situation about a year ago when the dream happened? Although this time around there was no Karen to yell at her on the front porch. Something seemed very wrong about the house when it was empty, and when she had once been completely fine being left alone to look after Toby (if a tad resentful) but recently the place made her uneasy. That was partly why she had invited Allison over in the first place. At least she had Merlin with her, even if he was a complete coward.

That horribly familiar feeling in her gut continued when she realised that the power had gone out. Logically it was only the storm but the very same thing had happened when… She suddenly felt incredibly relieved that Toby was at his grandma's then laughed at how insane that was. There was no such thing as Goblins. That had all been a particularly vivid dream she had had when she was a stupid lonely kid who read too much.

But why was she so nervous, in the dark, in a storm, well maybe she was justified in feeling nervous, especially when something small fluttered against her face. She nearly jumped out of her skin as a huge glowing moth fluttered around her head, followed by another and then another. Soon the hallway was full of them, shining in gloom, some as large as dinner plates. She screamed as they swarmed around her before finally swooping up and morphing in a burst of light into a human figure that touched down silently on the carpeted floor and Sarah could only gaze in disbelief as he eyes met startlingly familiar mismatched gaze of the most beautiful woman she had ever seen.

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**TBC...**

**A/N - I realise that Allison is a sort of unintentional Breakfast Club reference, and now I really want to write a crossover where that happens...because I'm sad.**


End file.
